>> good morning today's july 30th, 2013, well, to the transportation authority i'm supervisor avalos the chairman of the committee. today, we're being broadcast by sfgovtv. madam clerk please call the role >> to me - item one roll call

(calling names) we have quorum. >> okay. very good colleagues for being here i want to make sure we have everyone here to talk about our selection of an executive director. >> item number 2 closed section executive director information slash action item. >> today, we'll be interviewing 3 top commitments and the personnel committee met in june and today 3 candidates are

moving forward. those candidates you have information about them in your packet and we also will have a presentation from the awe kins company prior to the interviews to did you any questions about the candidates and go over a brief summary of the candidates. i have a sheet that i passed out for the candidates and it's 4 minutes per question and it's destined to a member of the personnel committee it's on your sheets. today, we hope to be able to move forward with a selection of a preferred candidate that will be fined listed in a vote in september. we're hoping to have a consensus. that will be very important we

can have strong working relationships with the selected candidates when that person becomes the x'd. and if we do have a consensus we'll be spending the next couple of weeks to negotiation terms of employment for the candidate and we'll finalize that in september before the board. we may very well decide we have two candidates moving forward just in case the first candidate decides not to come to agreement on terms. so & we'll have that during our closed session at the very end. so before going into closed session and we're going to have public comment before our closed

session colleagues any questions about the process? okay. why don't we go on to public comment? >> for over 35 years i've been involved with transportation issues. i find this process totally unnecessary for you supervisors who understand transportation issues and if you are fully aware of the administration code you know that are 1 or 2 of you all who are drawing out this process that's adversely impacting the constituents of

san francisco. having said that i know you're going to go into closed session and i hope that those of you who really love san francisco really care about transportation issues, really comprehended what the city needs does not go into closed session with a convoluted way of deceiving us. i can clearly see some of you who are called supervisors you find it very, very difficult to think straight. and this is one of the results. we need now to make a decision we need to adequate and make a

decision and a those you will choose the right candidate. i'm the only one from the public comment you all will go somewhere and at least we'll have some - you'll explain how that process happened and it should have been explained before public comment i think so. thank you any member of the public who would like to commit. seeing none, public comment is closed. okay. we're now g

(applause)

>> well, thank you and welcome to california. it's a great place to come and talk about solar energy because we are in the forefront of certainly the rest of the states, probably -- in fact, certainly in the western hemisphere, california is in the lead. and that's important. but being in the lead doesn't mean we've arrived at the goal. got a long way to go and i hope the work you do here, the conversations, the relationships that are formed can help advance the cause of solar energy and renewable energy or generally. back when i was governor the first time, that was a long time ago -- some of you folks weren't even born then -- not too many. i see a few gray hairs here who are hanging around. that was a long time ago, 38 years ago, as a matter of fact. very few people get to be

governor 38 years after they first started. [laughter] >> with a 28-year hiatus. (applause) so, i guess i have to expiate my many political sins and i spent time in the wilderness. but i am back and i can reflect on how politics work, how it worked then, what's happened in the meantime, challenges we now face. i promoted solar energy back in 1975 when i signed a law that granted a 55% tax credit to the installation of solar. that time was mostly solar hot water. but 55% was a credit, not a deduction. so, you took it right off your state income tax. probably the biggest incentive that has ever been provided. but over the years times

change, but still california at that time was leading the way in solar and building efficiency, and then very shortly after 1982 promulgated appliance efficiency standards. so, we did get the sense of renewable energy, efficiency, elegance in the way we handle resources. today, of course, we know a lot more. we know about climate change. we know about population, several billion more. we know if the demographers are right, the world will add 2 billion people. we now have 2 billion cars. the last time there were a couple hundred million cars. in fact, cars are reproducing faster than people. [laughter] >> and as long as they're using oil we've got a problem. that's why in california we

have a goal to have a million electric vehicles by 2025. (applause) >> so, that's -- just within the last two months, we actually recorded over 2000 megawatts of solar energy being put into the grid, which is more than [speaker not understood] provided. (applause) >> of course, the solar works for six hours or so and nuclear works for, you know, four times as long. however, it leaves a little bit of a tail afterwards that has to be dealt with. so, but it's an important milestone. and california does have the goal of 33% renewable energy. we have the goal of a million solar rooftops. we already have over 130,000

installations on homes and small businesses. so, we're looking at utility, scale, installation of solar, we're looking at individual homes, and businesses. so, wherever we can, we are encouraging it. we're number oned in the country. we're going to keep on going. it's very critical. now, i know from the idea to the execution to the secure realization, it takes a long time. and we have to have patience. we have to have staying power. so, that's the dilemma. we look at most of the countries. germany certainly an exception, but most are not stepping up to the plate. there is a complete disproportion between the knowledge and the magnitude of the knowledge about and the magnitude of climate change and what it's going to do to the

way -- to our way of life and our response. the response is feeble compared to the challenge, and we've got to wake up to that fact. (applause) >> the challenge -- one of the challenges is climate change is not news because it's too slow. news is fast. it's what happened yesterday. climate change has been happening gradually over time. there's a lot of other stuff that's going on that gets people all excited and i'm not saying you shouldn't get excited about a lot of trivial things. why not? it can distract you from other trivial things. [laughter] >> it may be more irritating. but still, we have to think of what's important and what our responsibility as human beings are.

it's not just fun and toys and entertainment and shopping. there's some serious stuff that men and women in this world have to deal with, and those things [speaker not understood], producing food, creating safe environment, schools, medicine, but energy is certainly one of the pillars of modern civilization. and there's a lot of oil in the ground. if we wait for peak oil to save us, we're done because we've got plenty oil. i remember somebody told me once, a stanford professor, our problem is not too little too late when it comes to oil, but it's too much too soon. in other words, there's plenty there. so, that's the problem. you've got something easy, coal, 40% now, but it's grown a lot. coal is pretty simple stuff. if you can't burn it in america, put it on a train, ship it over to china or india.

so, we got market forces. and against that we have to marshal intelligence and collaboration and political response, because this stuff is serious. and the fact that people aren't worried about it and don't talk about it doesn't mean it isn't serious. and that's the insidious character of this -- of this challenge, that some people know about it, 90, 97% of the scientists who deal in climate science all agree that when it comes to doing something it takes leadership. and not just political leadership, but business leadership, church leadership, academic leadership. and that's the context, i believe, in which you have come together. you're focusing on solar energy. that's a big piece. there's plenty of sun out there to take care of our energy.

it's going to take time. it's going to take technology. it's going to take scientific breakthroughs, research, and development. and it's going to take storage. and it's going to take various insebastianvv stifle. just in california you have some cities that charge 1800 bucks for a permit for somebody to put solar on their roof. we have to fight that. there are soft costs. we can bring that down. from the small incremental step to the long march in getting it done, those are all the elements that you have to deal with. and there are some pauses, sometimes things plateau. i know some utilities feel we have enough for 33 and a third percent which is our state goal. we have to find other states. we've got to get other people putting out that 33% renewable standard. we've got to get -- and we do, we have a law in california encouraging storage because we

can't just rely on the sunlight. (applause) >> we've got to bottle the sunlight. you've probably heard about that. we're bottling sunlight. well, that' a metaphor for storage. but we can get it done. you know, in a time of war when the invading army comes, people rise to the occasion. but when the invasion is more subtle and more gradual, then what? then it takes clarity, it takes courage, and it takes will, a lot of political will, a lot of personal will. and that's what i would urge upon all of you. you've got your businesses or your academic work. all of it has to flow into this transformation because climate change is happening. it's affecting the food supply. we have the number of people going up, the number of oil-fed cars going up, but we have food production now lagging behind.

and, so, we're going to have to slow climate change while we take care of all these other economic challenges. and it's very easy to say, well, we can't turn off coal. we can't go to solar. it's too expensive. well, you wait 10 years, you wait 15 years, it's going to be a lot more expensive, a lot more. so, how do we take the future and bring it forward so that we can act on the basis of what we certainly expect? and when i say "we," it's not we all of the people. it's we, a relatively small subset, people in this room, people throughout the country, but in rather limited numbers. and, so, you not only have to do what you're doing, but you've got to find a way to market the very idea of solar energy. the very idea that we have all the energy we need, we have to develop the technology to

utilize it without at the same time filling up our atmosphere with methane and co2 and nitrogen oxide and all the other emissions and pollutants that are going to reshape what life on earth is. when you hit 400 parts per million, as we did as reported by the monitoring stations over in hawaii, it hasn't been like that for 3 or 4 million years. when it was like that 3 or 4 million years, the sea was a lot higher. the ice at the poles was a lot less. so, we've got a lot of evidence. we've got to find now the step-by-step sequential movement toward the goal. and the goal is an energy system totally compatible with the rules of nature. (applause)

>> we've got to get on the side of nature. (applause) >> now, a lot of people like to have fight nature, but we are nature. when we fight nature, we're fighting ourselves. we're fighting our own life support system. that's really the challenge here. so, it's business. it's our livelihood, but it's also a calling to wake people up, to make the kind of progressive steps that are crucial to make sure that we keep going. so, we have 130,000 solar installations. we're going to get several hundred thousand more. and as governor of california, i guarantee we're going to get there because i'm going to move us out of all the obstacles. whoever, whatever they are, get out of the way. the sun is shining brightly in the state of california. [cheering and applauding]

>> all right. the only thing i want to say is when you introduced me, i could hear your german accent. [laughter] >> i just want to say, i'm going to germany next week because i still have a few distant relatives from my great grandfather, auguste schechman who came to california in 1882, a lot of us running around, some known as brown. i'm going to reconnect with my inner person. we're going to need the indomitable will to overcome the blindness that stands in the way from our obvious destiny and future which is in renewable, sustainible, solar america and solar world. thank you very much. [cheering and applauding]

[cheering and applauding] >> i just want to say i am humbled to have been able to introduce governor brown and very, very happy. you have here a room and concern, 20,000 people visiting who are all on the same line. thank you so much again. >> thank you. (applause) >> please don't leave the room. the governor, of course, has a

tight schedule and has to leave us. but i am very, very encouraged. i think we couldn't have opened solar in any better way. this is really simulating from somebody who has really shown in all his life and all his professional achievements that this is the right direction. so, i'm very happy to introduce as our next speaker our distinguished mayor from this wonderful city of san francisco in which the california sun shines. i don't have to introduce mayor lee to you. but i have to mention i found in your cv that you are a graduate from u.c. berkeley from 1978. welcome. we have a line up of berkeley graduates. (applause) >> well, thank you for that introduction, dr. weber. and if there's any doubt in your mind as to how governor

brown figured out the budget, you just heard it. that's the power of his leadership. good evening, everyone, and thank you for your attending the 2013 inter-solar conference here in san francisco. and first i want to give my personal thanks to the governor. just a couple weeks ago, by the way, all of the mayors from the top 10 city in the state of california met with him just a few weeks ago and we had on our mind a discussion with him about the economy, our budgets, our economic challenges. well, before we could sit down at his picnic table meeting room -- if you've ever met with the governor, you should realize he doesn't have an ordinary meeting table in his office. he has a picnic table. and if you know picnic tables, they're very hard to sit on, and he explained as he sat us down, i have a picnic table

here because the hard seats make you not want to sit here too long. [laughter] >> so, be quick with what you have. and before we were even able to express all of our concerns, he was at it. just deja vu a minute ago. he said, i want to talk to you mayors about climate change. and immediately he thrust into handing out a report to each and every one of us and asked us, you read this. and i know all of you are committed, but i don't want b.s., i want you to make sure you start paying attention to the science of climate change. and, so, he handed out a report. it was titled the scientific consensus for maintaining humanity's life support systems in the 21st century. and it was authored by worldwide scientists across the world, evidencing their confirmation that we're in big trouble and we need to do more for our environment. and this is -- he led the

conversation off with that. so, we not only could not avoid it, we had to be very happy about listening to him about this in order for us to get our agenda done. but that's how committed our governor is. and you saw it right here, the passion. this is leadership. this is what we are all doing and i am very happy to join him in making sure that that 33% gets done. well, in fact, we're not satisfied here in san francisco with 33%. we want 100% renewable energy in san francisco. (applause) >> and we will get that done, i assure you. climate change continues to be one of the most important issues and that is why this inter-solar conference has its sixth meeting here in san francisco. you know our passion for this. you know this is part of the dna of how we run our local government. i'm honored to be welcoming all of you back here to our great city, and i want to again thank